Critical Value of Third-Party Expertise for Accident Investigation

Learn about the benefits of utilizing outside experts and the challenges of internal investigations


Despite the extraordinary efforts of legislators, grassroots organizations, and individual healthcare organizations nationwide to prevent accidents related to medical devices, procedures, and processes, serious and fatal events continue to occur.

Yet, a recent survey undertaken by ECRI revealed that 75% of approximately 450 respondents do not involve third-party investigation assistance, even in the most complex and confounding events. In those cases, incident investigation was carried out by hospital personnel, and in some cases, by personnel actually involved in the incident.

Hospitals clearly should ensure that an internal accident investigation be performed and have a mandate to do so; however, there are some circumstances in which it may be unwise to rely solely on an internal investigation. In this paper, we present some of those circumstances for your consideration. In most cases, more than one of these circumstances may be involved.

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